off to second grade.

hard to believe connor is off to second grade!! he was super excited to go. he went out to wait for the bus 40 minutes early! good thing the stop is our driveway and we could all wait together. he has a wonderful teacher, ms. beus. he has lots and lots of buddies in his class {silent prayer for ms. beus}!

i'm so excited for the adventures and experiences that he will have this year! love you conna man!

willem.

"willem" {elsie first called will "willem" and now it has stuck as one of his nicknames}, just keeps on growing.

he's been crawling on all fours for a month or so. he pulls himself up along furniture and is starting to walk along them. he still loves his rice cereal. he loves to smile all the time and is the cutest when he smiles through his bink. he loves to jabber and make noises. he has big brown eyes. no teeth yet. loves to eat real people food. generally is a good sleeper at night. loves to walk with someone holding his hands. takes 2 naps a day if we're home {4th child problem}. he thinks he's just as big as the other kids. he's very easy going and loves to be toted around wherever as long as he can see what's going on. loves to play in the water, in his tubbies and at the pool. he's fast and into everything.

here's how his stats for his 9 mo well check went.

weight {19 lbs 9 oz - 40%}

length {30 1/4" - 95%}

head {17 1/2 - 15%}

we love our "willem"!

~ i was curious and looked back

to see  how big connor was at 9 months

and it is kinda crazy!

connor @ 9 months

{19 lbs 8 oz}

{29 3/4"}

2 boys from the same mold for sure!

fun at the fair.

the county fair is something that we always look forward to in august. this year was especially fun because connor tried mutton bustin for the first time. cory did it when he was young and so naturally if dad has done it, connor wants to give it a try. we've never planned far enough in advance to sign him up for it, but this year he did it at the jr rodeo. it was so fun to watch him be so excited and a little nervous too! he fell off shortly after the gate opened, but he still thought it was soo fun!

the kids always love the jumping dogs! 

i love that connor is still in his get up too!

we also got to ride an elephant! the kids were cute about it. afterwards when cory asked them what there favorite ride was, all three of them, independently of each other, responded that the free pony rides were their favorite...go figure!! well, at least it was a highlight for me! the summer i turned 18 i took a 3 week trip to asia. for one week we worked in orphanages in thailand. we also toured bangkok and puket. then another week in hong kong. so for my 18th birthday, while we were there, i wanted to ride an elephant! the day of my birthday though, i can't remember where we were, we weren't anywhere where you can ride them...what a bummer. 

and so after 15 years i finally got to ride an elephant for my birthday...just 2 days early. plus 3 of the kids got to ride it with me, makes it even sweeter!  

a fishing adventure.

as august quickly came and is now nearly halfway over, we asked the kids what things they have wanted to do this summer but hadn't done yet. the first thing that came out of connor's mouth was fishing! so after a little planning with grandpa, we ventured off on early saturday morning. we headed up to trial lake on mirror lake highway. the scenery up there was beautiful. the fishing was great, everyone caught at least one fish. we even saw a bald eagle swoop down and take a fish from the lake. gotta love those birds of prey!

panorama of our spot, don't let this pic fool you, 

there were tons and tons of people up there.

we brought a fish tank along so we could put some in and the kids could see them swim up close. we filled the tank twice. brought a few home, but let most of them go.

stopped at the upper provo river falls.

water is so powerful! it makes me a little uneasy being so close to it. i can't imagine what niagara falls would be like. 

gpa with the older fishermen. 

a date with my boys.

a while ago my mom took the girls down to play with cousins one morning, so i had my boys all to myself. we did manly stuff like go to the batting cages {and yes, connor had me to bat. he was quite impressed when i hit every ball, i earned cool mama points!}. we also panned for gold, and ate cheeseburgers for lunch. 

i love and cherish any moments i can get alone with my kids.

so grateful for this morning with my boys.

summer adventure up farmington canyon.

we ventured up farmington canyon a while ago. i'll admit, it's not my favorite canyon to drive up. honestly, it scares me to death. but...it wasn't so bad this time. who knows, maybe we'll head up again soon... cory loves farmington canyon and has many memories there. we had lots of fun exploring and hiking around farmington lake and driving up to the radar towers...something i've never done even after living in fruit heights/farmington for almost 25 years. it felt like we were on top of the world.

thanks to gpa packer for scoring on the hiking backpack. 

we've already used it multiple times this summer!

our cute little hiker.

trying to find our house. we got pretty close. 

found the neighborhood and park.

panorama from up top, this only the wasatch back half. 

not sure what happened to the davis county side.

a rite of passage.

connor got a tie a few weeks ago. 

every sunday cory gives him tying lessons.

my boy is growing up. 

so proud of him and the young man he is becoming.

big birthday boy.

we sure love this guy. he's pretty much the best ever. he had a birthday last week and we partied it up. 

we found a natural water slide in alpine. it was so fun! 

it was pretty refreshing at the bottom...

...the kind that takes your breath away. 

we hiked up to a bike jump near the slide. we watched a couple boys go off it and land in a pond. looked pretty fun, but i had to remind connor it wasn't very safe... :) looked like an afv (america's funniest home videos) accident waiting to happen...

we made a homemade pinata. fun to make and very messy! the kids loved it and couldn't wait to see what the pinata fairy filled it with. everyone took a turn swinging. i have a video of me doing it too, but pretty much i looked like a crazy lady...

we sure love you cor - happy birthday.